Asura's Wrath

When I first saw the trailers for Asura’s Wrath, I knew it was a game that I wanted to play. Playing the demo that came out shortly before it’s release only made me want to play it more…but not for 60 dollars. The game was something different, something crazy and over the top. At the same time something just didn’t feel right spending 60 bucks on it. It seemed like mostly quick time events and while that might have been entertaining in the demo, would it be after a 6-8 hour game? I decided to wait and after recently finding it for 20 bucks brand new I decided to buy. While the game is definitely not all quick time events and even though I had an absolute blast with it, I am glad that I did not spend the full 60 bucks on this.

Gameplay

As I said above, Asura’s Wrath tends to give off the impression that it is nothing but quick time events. While there are plenty of those strewn throughout the game that’s not all this game has to offer. There are basically 3 different types of gameplay mechanics you’ll see:

First there is your basic action game sections. In these you have full control over Asura and will have most of the fundamental action game controls at your disposal. You’ll have a light attack, a heavy AOE attack (which is on a cool down) and you can also jump, dodge and counter (which you can only do when the prompt appears on the screen). You also have the ability to shoot energy from your hands which is controlled in 1 of 2 ways: you can tap X to fire a shotgun-like blast or hold X which creates a steady rapid fire stream of energy blasts. For the most part I found the combat to be fairly responsive and I never got frustrated with it. The only minor gripe I had was when I would counter someone and the counter move would end up with them on the ground, but also on the other side of the arena from me. You see, basically when you manage to knock an enemy to the ground, you have a certain amount of time to get to them and perform a special, devastating attack on them, but when the are on the other side of the screen it makes it tough to get to them in time before they get back up.

The second kind of combat scenario you will be an on-rails shooter. During these sections Asura will either be falling from the sky or running ahead full tilt down a set path. You can move him side to side and sometimes jump but that’s it in terms of movement and you attack by using the above mentions energy blasts. You can hold X to produce a rapid fire stream, or you can paint your targeting reticule over a certain amount of objects and then hit Y to unload a volley of blasts to home in on all targets. These sections are usually only about 5 mins long and are usually only presented when the story need the character to get from one place to the next quickly so you do not need to worry about getting fatigued. They aren’t the best sections of gameplay, but they are still entertaining.

Finally you will see the aforementioned quick time events. These are mainly reserved for the huge, epic boss battles you will see throughout the game. The nice thing about these is that if you miss the prompt, or don’t mash B enough in the given time limit, the game doesn’t really punish you for it. Missing these prompts will not stop the forward progression of the scene, it only lowers your overall sync rating for that chapter and that only gets you unlockable items. This definitely works in the games favour as breaking the momentum some scenes build up could have made this game much less enjoyable.

While playing any of the above scenario’s you’ll also have an overlimit guage that fills up whenever you get hit, or when you land a hit. Once full, you can activate it which gets you increased movement speed, damage and the ability to use your heavy attack as much as you want until the gauge runs out. You’ll notice that you have a health bar, but none of the enemies/bosses have one. This is because you are always trying to fill a “Burst” meter. Basically everytime you land an attack on an enemy, it fills this gauge a little bit. Once it fills you hit right trigger and it activates a quick time event that ends the current battle. It definitely is a different way of doing things and it was something that I liked.

At the end of every chapter you are given a rating based on your completion time, how many hits/combos you landed and how well you did during quick time events. The ranking is mostly used to unlock different gauges that you can use in the game. Some give you added defence, some make the overlimit gauge fill quicker and some make the game harder by decreasing your health. Other than the gauges, there is 1 more thing that the rankings unlock. I won’t say what but you should try to get at least 5 S ranks as you play through the game.

Story/Characters

You are Asura, one of the eight demi-god guardian generals who serve under the emperor to protect the mortals of Gaia from the force known as the Ghoma which take on the form of various different animals and are hell-bent on destroying everyone and everything. Once every so-many thousands of years the source of the Ghoma, Vlitra, manifests itself and it is up to the demi-gods to beat it back into submission which is all they can do because it is apparently too powerful to kill. It is during one of these manifestations that the story starts. You play Asura as he and the other demi-gods fight against the Ghoma forces and eventually subdue Vlitra. When Asura returns home, he finds that he has been betrayed, his daughter has been kidnapped and is cast out of the place where the demi-gods live (a city orbiting Gaia). From here it is a fight for revenge and to save Asura’s daughter. Sound weird? Good, we’re on the same page. It may sound like a strange story but at it core it is another “angry single dad trying to save his daughter” story and the only thing that has changed is the setting in which it takes place. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate the story at all, I enjoyed it but it wasn’t anything super special. Aside from telling you the story in cut-scenes, you also get it presented via sub-titled, handdrawn pictures before each chapter starts. Each of these are made up of 3-5 different panels and are all done by different artists. They are all nice to look at and as long as you don’t mind 2-3 lines of reading per panel I would recommend not skipping them. You can also get a few more story bits by checking out the unlockable art-work. Each time you meet a new character or see a new place the art for it unlocks and each one has some additional info.

None of the characters in this game are very deep and you don’t get much back-story for them. The main character, Asura, is an angry guy who loves his wife and daughter and wants to protect the mortals of Gaia, nothing super special or unheard of there. Each of the eight demi-gods get their power from mantra (which is created by mortals praying to the demi-gods) and each is aligned with a certain type of emotion or sin (wrath, greed etc). It is from this that they gain their power although Asura seems to get most of his just from being really mad. Even though most of the characters were pretty standard anime affair, I still enjoyed watching them interact with each other and there were three in particular that stood out mostly because they had some kind of character arc or because it seemed like there was more to them than what was being shown.

The World

The world in which Asura’s Wrath takes place in isn’t really given a whole lot of explanation. Basically the demi-gods and their minions live in orbit around Gaia, which is is where the mortals live. It is unclear if Gaia is supposed to be Earth or if it is another planet somewhere in the universe, but the mortals all appear to be humans living in various places around the world. The smaller towns seem to be based off feudal Japan while the main cities look like huge sprawling areas filled with enormous buildings and sky-scrapers (which you never really get to visit). The game doesn’t do a whole lot when choosing where you will be fighting. It’s usually either a town, some desolate place on Gaia or in space. Granted each time you are in one of these places it does look different than the last time and the game does occasionally switch it up (going to the moon, for example).

Visuals

The graphics in Asura’s Wrath are pretty standard affair for this generation. Environments look good though you don’t really get a chance to stop and see if there is a lot of detail included as the game is mostly all go. There was one thing that stood out though and that was the way that the demi-gods themselves looked. Each one looks like they are molded from clay or chiselled from stone. It’s hard to explain but they looks much different than other characters or environments and I really liked whatever style it was that drew those characters to life.

Music/Voice Acting

I really enjoyed the music from this game and there are a few tracks that I enjoy listening to even when not playing. The music is dramatic, epic and bad-ass when it needs to be and it all sounds great. There is one piece that stands out in my mind though. At a certain point in the story Asura is consumed by his wrath and becomes a seemingly invincible bad-ass. Normally during a scene like this, you would expect the music to convey that feeling yet what we get is a slower moving almost sorrowful piece of music and I think it gives a little more insight to Asura’s character. You know that wrath is what drives Asura, but where does the wrath come from? In this moment it comes from pain and grief and it made me feel bad for the big angry guy. It’s a great example of how important the right song at the right moment can tell you a lot about a character more than the storytelling itself can.

I think the voice actors did a great job at bringing these characters to life. It may have some corny dialog, but what over the top anime style game doesn’t? Liam O’Brien does a great job bringing Asura to life by lending that specific kind of voice he does so well and Robin Atkin Downes was good as the bad-ass Yasha. All voice actors were also good at yelling, which im sure was mandatory in this game.

In Closing

I enjoyed every moment of this game. The gameplay was fun and responsive, the story was fairly simple, yet strange and entertaining and the look and sounds of the game were nice on the eyes and ears. I do kind of wish there was more to the world, but as I said it was more of just a back drop for all of the epic fights you get into. Another point I didn’t really get into was the fact that this game is epic in it’s scope. Some of the boss fights are very over the top (you fight a guy bigger than the earth) and some of the things you do as Asura are awesome, like fighting a horde of enemies with no arms. If that kind of thing tickles your fancy then this is the game for you. Even if you prefer your games to be a little more grounded I would still recommend playing this game, just do so with an open mind and maybe turn your brain off a little.